6. BAM Date of Record.. Chapter VI of ET Handbook No. 395 requires that "a minimum of 98 percent of cases for the year must be completed within 120 days of the ending date of the Calendar Year." Close of business (c.o.b.) April 30, the 120th day of CY 2003, is the date of record for state databases for computation of the CY 2002 BAM paid claims Annual Report and DCA rates. All BAM paid and denied claims accuracy rates published in the UI PERFORMS Annual Report and any supplemental analyses will be based on CY 2002 BAM paid and denied claims cases that have been signed off by the BAM program supervisor by c.o.b. April 30, 2003.

Changes to the state's database subsequent to the date of record can result in inconsistencies with DOL's database that must be reconciled before the BAM program data can be published. States must not reopen any CY 2002 BAM cases after April 30, 2003, until they have reviewed the BAM program data transmitted to them by DOL and have confirmed that these data agree with the BAM paid and denied claims accuracy data produced by the state's database. Procedures for resolving differences between DOL and state BAM program data are discussed in section 9.

7. BAM Annual Report Software. States may run the BAM paid claims Annual Report software as soon as they complete all CY 2002 BAM paid claims cases. The National Office will produce a paid claims Annual Report for each state, based on the CY 2002 BAM cases as of c.o.b. April 30, 2003. The BAM Annual Report software excludes cases that do not meet the definition of the BAM paid claims population (for example, supplemental payments or payments made for Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) claims) and adjusts the amount of UI benefits paid to the population to exclude the amounts paid that are represented by these excluded cases. Prior to the date of record, DOL will transmit a footnote lookup table for the CY 2002 BAM paid claims Annual Report.

The BAM DCA software on the state Sun computer systems does not currently include programs that allow states to produce DCA rates reports. Prior to the date of record, the National Office will distribute to all BAM supervisors and state Sun system administrators an Informix ACE report program that produces DCA rates. States are encouraged to use this program to produce DCA rates and compare them with the rates DOL transmits to them for comment prior to publication. States can verify DCA case completion and timeliness with the DCA Case Completion and Timelapse Report, which was installed on State Sun systems in BAM DCA software release 3.2 on January 31, 2003.

BAM DCA rates exclude sample cases that do not meet the definition of the DCA population (for example, monetary redeterminations, nonmonetary determinations that are not reportable on the ETA 207 and 9052 reports, and denied TEUC claims). DCA rates also exclude two types of cases for which there is no denial issue to investigate: 1) cases in which monetary eligibility was established upon receipt of CWC, UCFE, and/or UCX wage credits within the two-week sampling lag (Action Code Flag "0"); and 2) claims withdrawn by the claimant (Action Code Flag "8"). The software that the National Office uses to produce the DCA rates adjusts the DCA populations to exclude the determinations represented by these excluded cases.

8. BAM Report Formats, Definitions, and Supplemental Data.The BAM paid claims Annual Report format is displayed and the components of the Annual Report are defined in Attachment 1. In order for states to interpret the data in the Annual Report, the software also generates a report of the percentages of the estimated UI benefits that were overpaid by responsibility and cause. The format for this report is in Attachment 2. No sampling errors are computed for the responsibility and cause data. States should be aware that the percentages for some of the responsibility and cause categories are based on small numbers of BAM sample cases and may have relatively large sampling errors.

A prototype DCA rates report, definitions, and footnotes are provided in Attachment 3.

9. Comment Period.DOL will mail BAM paid and denied claims accuracy rates to each state by May 9, 2003. Each state should carefully review the paid claims Annual Report produced by DOL to verify that it agrees with the Annual Report produced from the state=s BAM database. States can check the DCA data by running the Informix ACE DCA rates reports.

States should report any discrepancies or submit questions concerning the BAM paid and denied claims data or footnotes to the National Office, with a copy to the appropriate Regional Administrator, by May 30, 2003, to Andrew Spisak by e-mail (aspisak@doleta.gov), fax (202-693-3975), or mail:

U. S. Department of Labor
ETA / Office of Workforce Security
200 Constitution Avenue, NW
Room S-4522
Washington, DC 20210

10. Key Dates.The following key dates for the public release of CY 2002 BAM data are the latest that the task or action must be completed.

4/18/03	States submit requests for waivers of BAM paid and denied claims time lapse requirements, along with supporting analysis, to the appropriate ETA Regional Administrator.
4/25/03	Regional Offices respond to states on the disposition of state requests for waivers of BAM time lapse requirements.
4/30/03	The National Office electronically transmits the footnote lookup table for the BAM paid claims Annual Report software to each state's Sun computer.
4/30/03	Each state checks its UI database to: 1) ensure that the BAM supervisor has signed off all BAM paid and denied claims cases which the investigators have completed, and 2) reopen any case in order to update information or correct any data errors. Cases closed by supervisors after April 30, 2003, will not be included in the paid claims Annual Report or DCA rates. States must not reopen any CY 2002 cases after April 30, 2003, until they have reviewed the BAM program data transmitted by the National Office and verified the data against their state database or reconciled any differences with DOL.
5/9/03	The National Office sends the CY 2002 BAM program data to the state administrators.
5/30/03	States review BAM paid and denied claims accuracy rate data and footnotes, and report any discrepancies or submit questions concerning the BAM data or footnotes to the National Office (to the attention of Andrew Spisak, as discussed in section 9), with copies to ETA Regional Administrators.
6/6/03	National and Regional Office staff address issues raised by the states and reconcile any differences in state and DOL BAM program data.
6/6/03	States provide the National Office the name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the contact person (or persons) for public inquiries concerning BAM paid and denied claims data. This information should be sent to the attention of Andrew Spisak at the address, e-mail address, or fax provided in section 9, with copies to the appropriate ETA Regional Administrator.
8/29/03	DOL publishes the CY 2002 UI PERFORMS Annual Report on the OWS public Web site, along with names of state contacts for BAM paid and denied claims data.

11. Action Required. State Administrators are requested to:

1. provide copies of these guidelines to the appropriate staff;
   
   
2. send any request for a waiver of time lapse requirements to the appropriate ETA Regional Administrator by c.o.b. April 18, 2003;
   
   
3. ensure that any issues related to CY 2002 BAM paid or denied claims data or footnotes that require reconciliation of differences between the state=s and DOL=s BAM program data are sent to DOL=s National Office and that copies are sent to the appropriate ETA Regional Administrator by May 30, 2003; and
   
   
4. ensure that the name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address of the contact person(s) to whom interested parties may write or call with questions or inquiries about the state's BAM program data are sent to DOL=s National Office and copies are sent to the appropriate ETA Regional Administrator by June 6, 2003.

12. Inquiries. Questions should be directed to the appropriate Regional Office.

13. Attachment. (1)   BAM Annual Report format, footnotes, and definitions; (2)   BAM Annual Report Supplemental Data format; (3)   DCA rate prototype report, definitions, and DCA footnotes.